z8o l>irell. II· Dirr/1. 12• DireCI.J3• , ' IJ(ed~en1ing Time. vital powers {hall give up thc:i( office, and thy pulfe Otall ccafe, and thy foul Otall take its filenr un~ difcerned flight, and leave thy body to be hid in darknefs, and carried by thy friends to the corn. man earth ?How Chart aTime is it betwixt this and the digg.in.g of thy grave ? Betwixt thy plea.. fures in the flcl\1, and thy fad farewel, when thou mull fay of all thy pleafures, They arc gone? Be– twixt thy cares and bufine!Tes for this world, and thy entrance into anorher world, where all thefe vanities are of no efieem? How.f\1ort is the Time between thy fin, al!d thy account in judgemenr? Between the pleafurc and the pam? And between the patient holincls of the Godly, and their full reward of endlefs Jays ' And can you {pare any part of fo lhort a life ? Hath God allotted you fa lit– tle Time, and can you fpare the Devil any of that little? Is it not aU little enough for fo grear • work, as is neceiTary to your Cafe and comfbrtablc death? 0 remember when florh orpl-eafure would have any, how little you h<ve in all ? And out of how fmall a llock you fpend ' How little you have for the one thing ne"Jfary? The providing for eternal life ? And how un{i:afonable it is tu be playing away time._ fo necr the entrance into the endlefs worlfl ? ' 9· I 8. Direct. 11. Rtmcmbtr alfo how un~ertain that liHlt Time is which you nmjl have. As you know it will be fhort, fo you know not how jhort. You never yet faw the day or hour, in which you were fure to {f:c another. And is it a thing becoming the Rcafon of a man, to flug or cafi away that day or hour, which for ought he knows may be his laU? You think that though you are not certaiw yet you arc li~tly to have more ? But nothing that is hazardo~~< lhould be admitted in a bufinefs of fuch moment : ·yea when the longeft life is jhort; and when fo frail a body liable to fo many hundred maladies and cafualties, and fo fin!•I a !oul,do make it probable as well as puf!ible, that the thred thy of life lhould be cut offere long, even much before thy natural period ; When fo many fcore at younger years, do come to che grave, for one that arriveth at the ripcnefs of old age; !s JJOt then die uncer· tai•ty of )by Time, a great aggravation of the finfullnefs of thy not-redeeming it. If you were lure. you had but one year to live, it would perhaps make you fo wife, as to f.ee that you had no Time to fpare. And yet do you wafi it, when you know not that you £hall live another day? Many a one is this week trifling away their Time, who will be dead the """ wet~(,; who yet wou)d have fpent it better if they ha;! thought but to have dyed the next year. 0 man; what if death come before thou hafi made thy neceffary preparation ? Where art thou then? When Time is uncertai11 .as well as jhort, hall thou not work enough of weight, to fpend it on? If Chrifi had fet thee to attend and follow him in greatef! holinds a thoufand years, lhouldt! thou not have gladly donc.it? And yet cant[ thou not hold out lOT fo lhort a life ? Canfi thou not watch with him one hour' He himfelf was pro. voked by the near"· Is of his death, to a fpecdy difpatch of the works of his life? And lhould not we? Matth. 26. ,g, He fendcth to prepare his lafi ·communion feat\ with his Difciples, thus: My time is at hand: I wiU k$ep the paffovtr at thy houfe with my Difciples. And Luke 2 2. 1 5· Witb difire have I dejired 10 eatthis paffover with you be{IYft I fuffer: So lhould you rather fay, My time is fhort : my death is at hand ; and .therefore it concerneth me to live in the knowledge and communion Gf God, before I go hence into his prefence; efpccially when as Ecclef. 9• 12. Man knormh not his time. Many thoufands would have done better in their preparations if they had known the period of their time. Matth. 24· 43• But k._norv this, that ff the good man of the bou[e, had l(_nown in rvhat watch the tbiif would come, be would have watched, and would not have fuffered his houfe to be brol{en up: 7hertforebe yeaifore•dy: For in fuehanhourar yethinl(, >Wt, thefon ofman<ometb: Mar"3·33· Ta~e )'i heed watcb a11d pray; for ye k._now not when the time is. 9· 19· DireCt. 12· Never forget what attendance tb01r hajl while thou art idling or /inning away t/ly Time: How tbe patience and mercy of God are ]laying for thee : And how Sun and Moon anJ aU tl 1 e creamres dre aU the while attending on thee? And mufi God fiand by, while thou art yet a 1itr1e longer abuling and offending him? Mull God llay till thy Cards, and Dice, and Pride, and worldly unnc– cdfary cares wal dilmifs thee, and fpare thee for his fervice? Mufl he wait pn the Devil and the world and the fl,{h; to take their leavings, and flay till they have done with thee ? Canll thou mar– vel if he make thee pay for this' If he turn away and leave thee to fpend thy time, in as much va– nity and idlenefs as thou'defirefi? Mufi God and all his creatures wait, on acareldS £inner, while he is at his fleQ,Iy pleafurcs ? Mull life and time be continued to him, while he is doing nothing that is worthy of his Lift aud time l The long jiiffering if God did wait on the difobedient in the days if Noah : 1 Per. 3· 20• But how dear did they pay for the contempt of this forbearance? 9· 20. Direct. '3· Confider foberly of tbt e11dt for wbicb tby life and Time are given tlm by God: God made nOt fuch a creature as man for nothing: He never gave thee an hours Time for nothing: The life and time of bruits and pla1ttJ is given them to be ferviceable to thee : But what is tbine for~ DoH thou think in thy Confciencc that any of thy Time, is given thee in vain? Wheq thou ar( fluging, ·or idling or playing it away,dot\ thou think in thy Confciencethat thou art wifelyanq hone!llyanfwer– ing the ends of thy Creation and Redemption and hourly preftrvation? Doll thou think that God is fo unwifc, or difregardful ofthy 'Time and tbtt, as to give thee nu;re than thou hafi netd of? Thou wilt blame thy Tailor if he cut out more cloath, than will make thy guments meet for thee, and agreea– ble to thy ufe: And thou wilt blame thy Shoemaker if he make thy {boos too big for thee. And dofi thou think that God is fo lavilh of Time, or fo unskillful in his works of providence, as to cut thee out more Time, than the work.. which he hath cut thee out rcquireth? He that will eaU thee to a redwning for alll hath ccrrainly given thee none in vain. If thou canft find an hour that thou hail nothing to do with, and mult give no account for, let that be rhc hour of thy pa}fimt. But if thou knewefi thy need, thy danger, thy hopes and thy work, thou wouldfi never dream of having Time to fpu~. For my own pm, I muf\ tell thee, if thou have Time to fpare, thy cafe is very much
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=